Vitality have earned a spot in the ESL Pro League Season 14 playoffs after besting Astralis in a two-map series, leaving Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander‘s troops in a dire situation as they are staring down Heroic in their final match, with a top-three placement looking increasingly unlikely as ENCE would win the head-to-head in a tiebreaker and have only Bad News Bears left to face.
As a result of Vitality‘s victory, Casper “cadiaN” Møller‘s side have also secured the top seed out of Group A, holding the best overall record and a head-to-head win over the Frechmen. Spirit, meanwhile, are entirely out of contention for playoffs, regardless of the results of the final day of matches.
“Now that I have more experience, I’m used to having certain reactions, a feeling about how to play CS more,” Kévin “misutaaa” Rabier explained after the match, in which he had a stellar showing on Overpass. “I’m more comfortable in the team.” He also praised Dan “apEX” Madesclaire‘s leadership, stating that both he and Jayson “Kyojin” Nguyen Van were focusing on listening to the captain’s voice more in matches.
apEX led Vitality to a two-map victory over Astralis
A triple kill from gla1ve kicked off the series on Overpass for Astralis, who converted against Vitality‘s ensuing forcebuy and ran away with the first gun round, pulling ahead 5-0. Although Vitality‘s first round win was immediately countered by Astralis, a swift A attack with pistols swung momentum back in the favour of the Frenchmen, who went on to dominate the remainder of the half thanks to strong showings from misutaaa and Kyojin.
The second half unfolded much the same as Philip “Lucky” Ewald scored a triple kill to secure a pistol win for Astralis, going on to convert the ensuing two rounds to tie up the match before Vitality began to answer back. misutaaa‘s reign of terror continued as he racked up further multi-kill rounds, leaving no opportunity for Astralis to get back in the running as the map was brought to a swift end, 16-9.
Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, after needing to do little on Overpass, took firm control of the proceedings on Inferno, crushing Astralis‘ efforts to attack bombsites in the first half. The Danes were unable to string together rounds as the French prodigy put up 21 frags in the first half, helping his side to an 11-4 lead heading into the side swap.
A pistol win allowed Vitality to further extend their lead to 13-4 before gla1ve‘s side were able to reply, but only five rounds went the way of Astralis before Vitality took things over the line, closing out the map and series in dominant fashion.
The Group A standings ahead of the final day of matches, which will see ENCE look to secure the final spot in playoffs, look as follows:
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Source: https://www.hltv.org/news/32197/vitality-beat-astralis-to-earn-esl-pro-league-playoff-berth
